I'm really happy about the results, but also found it a little odd that the simplest beers that I made did the best. The brown is 6 lbs of dark DME, a single hop and S-04. That's it. No steeping grain, no mash. The dubbel is an extract recipe with some steeping grains. Maybe there is something to the "keep it simple" theory after all . . .

I'm really happy about the results, but also found it a little odd that the simplest beers that I made did the best.

I just got the judge's notes and it all makes sense now. The American stout I did (the one I was really proud of, got a silver) scored a 40, and the Belgian scored a 37, which got a gold. So it was more about what the competition was than the relative merits of the beers (at least compared to each other.)